The Hillsboro golf team endured its second disappointing outing of the new season Thursday with an eighth-place finish among eight qualifying teams at its own Hillsboro Invi?ta?tional.
Halstead won the tournament with a four-man score of 346. The Dragons were followed by Bennington at 355, Goessel 367, Hesston 384, Chapman 404, St. John?s Military 408, Minneapolis 409 and Hillsboro 414.
Devin Dick paced the Trojans with a 93 over 18 holes, good for a 15th-place individual medal. Tom Frese of Ben?nington won the tournament with a 76.
Also competing for Hillsboro were Evan Ollenburger with a 96, Kyler Borg 108, Casie Allen 117 and Graham Pankratz 128.
The Hillsboro tournament came on the heels of a team score of 390 at the Herington Invita?tional last Tuesday. Ollen?burger led the way for Hillsboro with an 89. He was followed by Dick 91, Borg 98 and Allen 112.
?This was a frustrating first week of competition for us,? coach Scott O?Hare said. ?I knew scoring well from a team point of view would be difficult, especially early in the season. But going into this first week of competition, I really believed we were better prepared to play.
?We have spent a lot of time in practice working on the driving range on swing mechanics and working on the practice green with chipping, pitching and putting. Everyone has shown marked improvement in these areas, and ball striking has improved dramatically from the first week out.
?However, after seeing how we competed in tournaments this week, I can see that we need to look a lot more at the mental side of playing competitive golf and look more at course and round management. I just don?t think these guys understand yet how to translate practice into a competitive round of golf.?
Coming?The Trojans have a full week of practice to work on their game. Their next tournament will be April 16 when they play at Sterling starting at 3 p.m.
